Author: Evan Mua
There’s an enigmatic restaurant settled right in the corner unit of the junction connecting Carpenter Street and South Bridge Road. One affixed with tall glass panes but also paradoxically enshrouded within pale white drapes, providing little clues besides a sleekly stylised “LUMO” stencil on the windows.
There’s an image that has been attributed to wine bars over the decades. It’s one that’s stuffy, it’s inaccessible, and it’s opulent. But there’s currently a renewed struggle to escape from that culture as more and more new concepts like Vin Geek are joining in to fight the good fight.
Joo Chiat is a street that truly only bursts into life when the sun goes down and the lights turn on. Joining this nocturnal street is an aptly named Supperman Speakeasy & Grill, a grill concept where the common man can let up after a hard day’s work.
[Update: Fizzy Dayz has closed and Draft Land has taken over the location.] “Soft reset” is a trend I’d attribute to Singapore’s bar scene in 2022 — the scene seemed to have developed swanky speakeasy fatigue and new bars were getting more and more ratchet as dive was coming back in trend and Fizzy Dayz is leading the charge in 2023.
Continue reading “Fizzy Dayz”
While on an evening stroll through Keong Saik Road, most sights would naturally gravitate towards the monstrous queue that used to form in front of shop No. 30, the long-time home of Kok Sen, the zichar restaurant that had become an icon of the trendy neighbourhood. Continue reading “Kok Sen Restaurant”
Not long ago, the sands of time had buried the chaos of 2021 six feet under. As in their nature, the relentless hands of time continue to march on, stoic and unphased. Now they inched, ever slowly, towards the rugged corners of this chapter in history, preparing to turn the page to mark the end of 2022. Continue reading “Best Restaurants in Singapore 2022”
There is always beauty to be found, even in the most humble and stripped-down locales. Singapore may be a luxurious and modern metropolis but that is doubly true for us, a city as impassioned about our humble hawker food as much as our Michelin-starred concepts. Being a sleek transplantation of New York into Singapore, Quality Melts is a concept that thoroughly fulfils this ethos. Continue reading “Quality Melts”
As the dreary storm clouds cleared up, frail wisps of golden hour sunlight threaded through the lush green foliage before bouncing onto a clutter of tables sprawled out along the viridescent ground-floor perimeter of a lone Kallang building, where Raw Kitchen Bar operates.
The Joo Chiat stretch is probably one of the most prolific neighbourhoods for Vietnamese food. The street is littered with numerous authentic eateries including one of the most classic spots for Vietnamese sandwiches in Singapore, 233 Banh Mi.
The dart flew true, whistles of wind brushing its feather before its nose dug its way into the embrace of the red central ring. Bullseye. A second flew, less centralised, but somehow squeezing its way into the thin demarcation between the two ends of number twelve. That’s how our night at Oche started. Continue reading “Oche”
